01 | GOD REVEALED | Genesis 2:15–17 | Adam — a man meets his Maker

Sermon Outline

God Works His Covenant Purpose

God Initiates Personal Relationship

God Speaks With Absolute Authority

God Makes Generous Provision

IMPLICATIONS

—————

INTRODUCTION

This morning we begin a brief series in January entitled:

God Revealed

Series Purpose:

To go through a variety of encounters God has with individuals in the Bible and ask what is God revealing about himself in that encounter.

It is not a character study on the individual, but a character study on God as he reveals himself to mankind.

This morning, we begin with Adam.

We will see that God reveals himself in covenant relationship …

… that forms the backdrop of sovereign authority and abundant grace

… for the whole of the story of redemption.

PRAY

3:00

GOD WORKS HIS COVENANT PURPOSE

God has a purpose for mankind in creation.

Read Genesis 1:26-27.

He makes mankind in his own image.

And he reveals his purpose that mankind would rule over all things in creation.

5:00

While mankind, together, share this image and purpose …

Adam, as the first in creation has a representative purpose.

Read Genesis 2:15.

The beginning of chapter 2 happens, chronologically before Genesis 1:26-27.

The author jumps back to before the creation of Eve to tell of God’s unique interaction with Adam.

Genesis 1:26 reveals God’s general purpose for humanity.

Genesis 2:15 reveals God’s specific and explicit purpose for Adam.

7:00

God’s purpose for humanity is worked out through a covenant with Adam.

While the word covenant is not used in these chapters of Genesis, all of the attributes of a covenant are there.

Definition of the relationship

God is the Creator and Adam is the creature.

God has the right to initiate covenant with Adam.

Clear parameters or conditions of the covenant.

Read Genesis 2:16–17.

Covenant consequence of Blessing and Curse

The blessing is to partake of the bounty of creation.

The curse is death.

What resembles a Covenant Sign

The garden and tree.

Faith is worked out in relationship to this covenant sign …

… by trust in God’s word

… demonstrated clearly by not eating of the tree.

(See Hosea 6:7).

So, God has a unified purpose for humanity …

… that he makes explicit in personal covenant relationship with Adam as the covenant head for humanity.

10:00

APPLY

This is important because God is not only telling us something about Adam …

… and how he intends to relate to him as his Maker.

God is telling us something about himself …

… and how he will ultimately reveal himself as redeemer and covenant head of a new people in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

We have spent more time on this first point than we will on the others …

… but this is important because here in the first chapters of scriptures

… God establishes the pattern of his relationship with humanity

… through his particular relationship with Adam.

12:00

This second point is crucial to understanding how God covenant relationship.

GOD INITIATES PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP

The God who speaks creation into being …

… speaks directly with Adam and Eve as his special, image-bearing creation.

It cannot be overstated or over-appreciated how amazing it is that God speaks to his creation.

Mankind does not enter into negotiations with his Creator.

But the Lord has entered into covenant relationship with mankind.

God makes this clear in his interactions with Adam.

14:00

In perhaps one of the most tragic sentences in the Bible, we see both how the Lord intends a personal relationship with humanity …

… and how Adam and Eve break covenant with the Lord and lose this intimacy of relationship with God for which they were created.

Read Genesis 3:8.

Before the Lord even brings down his judgement upon sin …

… we see that sin itself is it’s own judgement.

It was Adam and Eve who hid themselves from the presence of the Lord …

… before the Lord even casts them out of the garden.

16:00

APPLY

What is clear is that God is personal.

He is not an abstract force or power.

He is the relational God who walks with his people.

We see this in his initiation of his covenant with Adam.

And we see this in how he interacts with his people.

17:00

God reveals his purpose by covenant with Adam.

God initiates a personal relationship with humanity.

In both cases …

GOD SPEAKS WITH ABSOLUTE AUTHORITY

There can be now confusion about who is the Lord of creation.

When the Lord speaks, he upholds his own authority over both humanity and all of creation.

Consider each of the Lord’s statements.

Genesis 1:26 — The Lord reveals his purpose in making man even before he fashions him from the dust of the earth.

Man does not self-reflect and fashion his own purpose.

Of his own absolute authority …

v27 — God purposes the creation of Adam and Eve, and so he makes them.

As God speaks, so it is.

v28 — The first words recorded from God to man in Genesis are words of command.

Be fruitful, multiply, fill, subdue, have dominion.

It is a generous command, but it is command nonetheless.

Why does mankind rule in creation?

Because God has ordered it so by the word of his power.

20:00

Genesis 2:16–17 — God gives a clear instruction about how Adam was to live in the garden.

Why could Adam not eat of the tree?

Because God, who is the Lord, said so!

Again, man does not self-reflect and consider how he is to live.

The Lord speaks, and Adam receives by God’s word how he is to live.

Genesis 2:18 — God alone decides what is good and what is not yet complete.

According to his own counsel the Lord works.

And so, having made Adam according to his own purpose …

… he now creates woman, also according to his own purpose.

22:00

APPLY

One thing should be clear to us in God’s revelation of himself to Adam.

The Lord is the singular and absolute authority.

Who is Adam?

Why does he exist?

What is his purpose?

How is he to live?

These are not matters for naval gazing speculation or presumptuous negotiation.

When God speaks, he speaks with absolute authority!

24:00

The Lord paints a clear picture for us about who he is in his interaction with Adam.

God’s works is according to his own design.

God’s covenant is according to God’s own parameters.

When God speaks, he speaks with singular authority.

But there is a thread that runs through God’s interactions with Adam that colors our understanding of who God is.

That thread that accompanies God’s singular authority is his abundant generosity.

Throughout God’s interaction with Adam …

GOD MAKES GENEROUS PROVISION

The first and greatest generosity, is the gift of being itself.

Humanity is God’s idea.

Adam is God’s idea.

Eve is God’s idea.

The complementary relationship of male and female is God’s idea.

The intimate and fruitful relationship of husband and wife is God’s idea.

And we hear God speak the idea of humanity …

… even before he works the generous provision of existence.

Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.

He gifts existence to mankind.

And he gifts to them the greatest of images as the fashion for their being—

—he makes them in the image of God.

29:00

And what of his purpose for humanity?

In Genesis 1:28, just before the Lord gives mankind their mandate …

… it says “God blessed them.”

What was the blessing?

It was the generous provision of a glorious purpose in creation.

To fill and subdue the earth!

God’s purpose for humanity itself is a word of blessing from God.

And, how many times does this passage refer to God giving?

v29 - God gives to Adam every fruitful plant and tree.

v30 - God gives the beasts and birds and creeping things every green plant for food.

v31 - Ah! And it was good!

31:00

And when God gives his covenant command to Adam in Genesis 2:16-17 …

… he begins his command by giving to him “every tree of the garden!”

Yes, there is a clear restriction in the covenant.

But no one can argue that the Lord’s provision is not generous.

Even his command not to eat begins with a blessed provision of every other tree.

Even more, the Lord provides the fullness of humanity to Adam when he makes woman.

And Adam is moved with exultation at the sight of her.

This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh;

33:00

APPLY

The Lord has a purpose in creation …

… and this purpose is through covenant relationship.

The Lord has all authority in creation …

… and he uses this authority for generous provision.

There is a pattern to God’s revelation of himself to Adam.

The Lord alone is God.

And the Lord has both:

… fashioned a good creation

… and has blessed his special creation, humanity

… whom he has placed in creation to rule it in his name.

35:00

APPLY

The purpose of this series is to see God according to his own self-revelation throughout the history of his interactions with humanity.

I want us to consider as we close this morning …

… how Jesus, God made flesh

… embodies all of what we see in God’s relationship with Adam.

Jesus both fulfills the purposes of God …

… and has succeeded where Adam failed to secure the blessings of God’s covenant relationship.

GOD WORKS HIS COVENANT PURPOSE

Jesus is the culmination and fulfillment of the Old Covenant and the center and hope of the New Covenant.

Adam failed to take hold of the blessings of obedience.

You and I have also failed to obey.

Our only hope is faith in the New Adam, Jesus …

… that we would become beneficiaries of the blessings of redemption that he alone has secured by his obedience and sacrifice.

39:00

GOD INITIATES PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP

Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to bring all the redeemed into intimate knowledge and fellowship with God.

1 Corinthians 2:10 ESV

these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit.

The purpose of God remains that we should know him.

It is for this reason that he not only made humanity in Adam, but also that he has redeemed us in Christ.

Ephesians 3:17–19 ESV

… that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Jesus sends his Spirit to bring all the Redeemed into intimate knowledge and fellowship with God.

41:00

GOD SPEAKS WITH ABSOLUTE AUTHORITY

Jesus speaks with all the authority of heaven itself.

As the carol puts it poetically: Jesus is the Word of the Father now in flesh appearing.

As the Father himself said of the words of the Son, we would do well to listen to him.

Mark 9:7 ESV

“This is my beloved Son; listen to him.”

Throughout the ministry of Jesus we see his power over all of creation.

43:00

GOD MAKES GENEROUS PROVISION

Jesus has secured every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

Ephesians 1:3 ESV

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,

We are free, and it is good to enjoy the good things of creation.

But our final hope is found in the spiritual blessings we have in Christ.

Colossians 3:1–2 ESV

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.

Through him, we will enjoy all the goodness of his kingdom, forever.

And, before we think we will lose any of the good gifts of creation in the New Heavens and the New Earth.

Luke 12:31 ESV

Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you.

Jesus

45:00